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Saturday, 29 September 2012

Well I know Halloween is around the corner so I thought a gruesome title might grab your attention, but it's not quite as awful as it sounds! It's my card for this week's CASology cue card inspired by the word "shoe". I went for this cute pair of elf's legs complete with shoes but minus a body! It's from the silhouette online store and cut simply from red and green card.

I turned the legs into a card with a punny sentiment printed on the computer in green, mounted with a slight overhang and finished with some red faux stitching.

Monday, 24 September 2012

My friend wanted me to make a couple of cards, one for her new baby niece which I'll share later and another for a family wedding coming up next month. She didn't have any idea what she wanted on the card other than their names but told me that the invite colours where white, red and silver. Anyone who has the latest Stampin Up catalogue may recognise where I found the inspiration for this one.....

I used stampin up love and laughter and embossed both the greeting and the cake in silver and added 3 tiny punched flowers to the cake. I printed the names and wedding date using MT Bold Script and rounded two of the corners. I repeated the corners on some red and silver strips. I punched and die cut a variety of hearts from red and silver card stock and scattered down the card like confetti and mixed in a few tiny gems.

Sunday, 23 September 2012

I was very inspired by the special edition of Paper Crafts which dealt with aspects of design and really wanted to play along with all the great challenges Cath set over in the Moxy Fab world but I didn't really find the time or mojo this month to really do them justice.

I did manage to have a go at the repetition challenge though for my Uncles Birthday last week and realised I haven't blogged it yet so am squeezing it in under the radar before the challenge ends tomorrow.

I simple stamped a row of paint tubes from There She Goes in a line on a one layer card and used the paint brush bucket from the same stamp set to break up the row. My Uncle paints as a hobby so this seemed a perfect image for him. I took further inspiration from the magazine for the colouring and went with an ombre scheme. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Saturday, 22 September 2012

I'd already been thinking of using my new frostyville wreath for this week's CASology cue which is "white" but wasn't sure what to do with it then this morning's LIM challenge was to pick 3 past challenges and combine them so a little browsing the challenge list led me to this.

My card actually fits several of the past challenges - 14 White on White, 15 Embossing, 43 Bit of Bling, 45 Let it snow, 55 Die cuts but the one that inspired me was my nemesis week - 11 the dreaded acetate! I wasn't quite brave enough to get the acetate out, but thought I could get an interesting look to turn the die cut into a card by embossing my sentiment onto vellum. The sentiment is from There She Goes (Wishing You). I also cut the wreath (memory box) from vellum and glued that down first on my square card with glossy accents to give the top image a shadow effect. The top image is cut from white glitter cardstock and offset slightly from the vellum layer. I simply finished with a little bling on the wreath and a couple of white pearls to hide the dot of glossy accents I used to hold down the sentiment strip.

I decided not to make a card this month - a friend asked for a recipe for a cake I'd made which features apples and pears so I thought a jazzed up recipe card would fit the theme perfectly. I printed the recipe onto kraft cardstock to give it a base colour with an autumnal theme and then decorated it with leaves from Big Bloom Chrysanthemums, an apple from Teeny Trees and a title from Back in the Saddle. Much better than a scribbled on a post-it note which is how I usually hand over recipes!

Time to surf around the rest of the party participants - thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, 15 September 2012

I've should have had a nice long day of crafting, but as seems to be the way of late, things didn't go to plan and even when I did finally make it to my craft room late this afternoon, my mojo seems to have upped and left me high and dry (probably as I've got some card orders to fill - it always seems to run away when I need it most!) Anyhow, I thought I'd try my favourite challenges to see if I could dig up some mojo and I've combined the colour theme (black and white plus one of your choice) over at CASual Fridays with the theme (ovals) at Less is More with a new challenge to me - 365 cards (they do a new challenge every day and I picked one from a couple of days ago which is CAS with one embellishment)

I opted for a very simply thin black mat, a strip of black with an embossed birthday sentiment in white and a little black scottie dog embellishment framed in a pink spotty oval with a line of white faux stitching. Not the most original of entries but I am pleased with the very clean lines and hint of pink. The scottie dog has been in my stash for ages and is fluffy with a velvet collar.

Thursday, 13 September 2012

There She Goes Stamps is 4 this month and is celebrating with 5 birthday challenges. I've been working on them for a couple of days and now I have 5 cards to share so bare with me, this is going to be a bit of a long post!

As the challenge here was all about numbers - I turned to the Numbered Days set and simply stamped a row of numbers onto DP option to highlight the age of the birthday by using one of solid stamps from the set instead of the outline versions. The sentiment and balloons are from the same set.

For the masculine challenge I opted to use the super-cute Out of This World set, stamping a variety of elements from the set colouring with copics and cutting out. I embossed some stars onto a black base card in green glitter EP and added the sentiment with white embossing. I stuck on the coloured elements onto the base card to create an out-of-space scene.

The third challenge was a photo inspiration based on the photo above - I went pretty literal with a cake and using the colours:

I used the set "A little treat" and stamped a row of cakes onto a strip of white card in grey ink. I stamped it once more on a scrap of card in black in and coloured with copics using the blues, teals, reds and whites from the inspiration photo. I added a couple of stripes of washi tape to the base card and stamped some greetings from the set in red ink to finish.

For the 4th challenge we just had to incorporate a banner - for this I turned to the first ever TSG stamp set I bought "Sentimental" and simply stamped it onto DP and cut a banner shape by hand. I used the faux letterpress technique by inking a starry embossing folder in rainbow colours using a brayer (thanks Vicky!) and a keleidacolor multi coloured inkpad. Finished with a few random gems and some faux stitching.

For the final challenge I had to use my favourite little donkey (Ba Donkey Donk set) and thought I could create a sort of rosette for my required elements of 3 embellishments. I used a die cut doily, some ribbon and a brad. I stamped the sentiment from Birthday Bot onto the base card to finish.

If you're new to TSG then now is a good time to check them out as they have a 15% off birthday discount code on their blog so a great time to try their excellent quality stamps.

I coloured the face and hands with copics and then using bits of paper from my scrap drawer (and hence entering Pixie's Snippet challenge this week too) in greys and blues I cut the head out of the hat and pieced it over the coloured image. I added grey bits to the dress and blue bits to the hat to match it all in - some of the bits were sooooo tiny I had to cut them 2 or 3 times as I kept losing them!

I added a tesatina die cut strip and a couple of blue gems for a bit of birthday sparkle and embossed a sentiment from Papertrey Ink Movers and Shakers Stamp Set in white onto the black base card.

Very simple card using the Hero Arts Miracle of the Holidays stamp set some matting and layering and a die cut pair of holly leaves cut on my silhouette cameo finished with 3 red gem berries - simples :-D

I can see these being turned into mass production for our cards this year.

This particular friend's wedding colour theme was green so I always make their anniversary card to match. This year, I went with a couple of green birds (wplus9 die cuts), perched on a green embossed tree branh (hero arts whoo loves you). I used one of their wings to create the little heart above them (embossed and glossy accented too). The birds are mounted in the center of an embossed frame (sorry don't know who the folder is by - think I got it at the Range though) I drew around the scallops with a sakura pen which I used to draw a line around the green mat too. Finished with a PTI sentiment and a little glitter in the love-heart leaves. I quite like the kraft and lime colour combo - may have to use it again.

Saturday, 8 September 2012

Hi there - sorry it's been a bit quiet on the blog this week but I've been on holiday - staying at home but I forced myself to stay away and spend some time with my hubby for a change. He's back at work today though so I've had some time to play.

I really loved Chrissie's faux letter press cards this week - and as it's a technique I've never had any success with personally, I decided to give it another bash. I inked up a sizzix folder with a chalk ink and cleaned it up before running through my machine - I'm guessing this is where I failed as there was barely any ink on the card. Perhaps I should use different ink? Anyhow, the impression was good so I just painted in the debossing with luminarte paint and finished with a sentiment in black (kirsty wiseman for PI)

For the second one, I went for an altogether more simple, and consequently more successful approach! I used a ginko triboss folder on the bottom 2 thirds of a small square card and stamped a sentiment from hero arts (essential messages) across the top of the embossing in pearlescent thyme ink.

However, my DH pointed out that kraft card is brown and that I love the stuff - so I decided not to be a wuss and after a bit of a play came up with this:

Tree image (PTI love and marriage) stamped on kraft using rich cocoa ink. I matted onto brown and then used a scrap of pink with the same brown ink to stamp the true love sentiment (same set) and the heart was stamped in rose bud onto the tree trunk. I added some pink bling to the tree (wouldn't bling trees be lovely in a forest!) and mounted to the left on a pink base card over a tessatina die cut from more kraft. The anniversary sentiment is from another PTI set stamped in cocoa again directly to the base card.

We've been to the local "art in the gardens" art and craft fair today - it's an annual event and we do love it. I came away particularly inspired by a couple of artists today so time for tea and a little more paper crafting experimentation.

Saturday, 1 September 2012

Our challenge over at St Luke's this month is all about couples - not necessarily romantic ones - if you check out the challenge you can see the variety of inspiration from the DT with feathers, fur and scales.....

I didn't go down the romantic route either - I went for a couple of great friends with one of my favourite stamps from the Uptown Girls range by Stampin Bella.

I simply stamped the image onto colouring card, coloured with copics and pencils and stamped the matching sentiment underneath. Simply decorated with some DP matting and layering, a little ribbon and some off cuts from a PTI border die which make an interesting faux photo fixer. I added a gem to enhance the deco feel of the die cut shape.

We have a couple of super cute stamps form Lili of the Valley as prizes this month so I do hope you'll join in on the challenge - our numbers have dropped a little and even if you don't want to donate your card to the charity element of the challenge, the more players we get online the more the word gets out to new players so you're still doing your bit to help the charity along. http://stlukescharitycardschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/couples.html

About Me

Hi - I'm Tara a food and craft obsessive who like a magpie is drawn to all things that sparkle! I am now living my crafting dream and own my own online craft supply store Make the Day Special Stamp Store which specialises in importing hard to source US craft brands.